The Dance of the Blue Card

The application for Merit Badge AKA the “Blue Card, is a little piece of paper that will get even the most level-headed Scouts doing the dance of the blue card.
Just sit back and watch as a Scout realizes that he’ll be 18 in a few months. The line dance for a visit with the Troop secretary is reminiscent of scene from Urban Cowboy.
I was recently asked about the process of the Blue Card and how we do it in our Troop. The reader has asked to remain nameless, but I am glad that this question came up. I can not tell you how times I have had conversations about such a simple thing, but something that is sometimes more confusing than a rubics cube.
Our reader asks; “Anyway would you share how your Troop handles Blue Cards, from the time the Scout asks to start a merit badge and is give the Blue Card through completion and where the Blue Card goes and who handles what.”So here it goes… I’ll let you behind the curtain of how Troop 664 does the Blue card dance. There are actually two ways that we do this. I will explain the regular way that we do it and then how we do it for summer camp.
First. The Scout expresses interest in a merit badge… He picks the merit badge and goes to the Troop Secretary and asks for a blue card.
Then, the Scout fills out the Blue card. He fills out the whole front of the card leaving only my signature space blank. He fills out the back of the card with his name and the name of the merit badge he is going to work. He can leave the name of the counselor blank.
The Scout then brings me the blue card and I sign the front of the blue card. This allows the Scout to start working on the merit badge. It also gives me an opportunity to talk with the Scout about the badge and answer any questions that he may have. If I know who the counselor for that merit badge is, I give the Scout the information, if I don’t I have the Scout return to the Troop secretary and she will look up the counselor and give the Scout the information, phone number etc.
The Scout then works the merit badge. The counselor fills out the card and confirms that the Scout met all of the requirements. Once the merit badge is complete, the counselor signs and dates it and gives it back to the Scout.
The Scout will then bring the completed blue card back to me. I then sign the card and have the Scout give the blue card to the Troop secretary. She records the completion date and merit badge into the Troop master software and takes the first part of the card and files it with the Troop records. The Scout gets the remainder of the card. Most counselors do not retain their copy.
The Applicants record is stapled to the merit badge certificate as is the actual merit badge. The Scout is presented the merit badge at the next court of honor.
That completes the Dance of the Blue card.
The only difference in this process for summer camp is this. I will pre sign a bunch of blue cards. I then hand them out on day 1 of summer camp. The Scout takes the blue card and fills it out and takes it to the first session of the merit badge class.
At the completion of summer camp, the blue cards are returned from the summer camp staff to the Scoutmasters. I sign all the completed merit badges and make a note of the partials.
During summer camp, I track the merit badges being worked daily. I keep a chart in my notebook of who is working what badge at what time. Then I follow-up daily at the “Scoutmaster cabin”. The camps in our council all make daily progress reports available. If by Wednesday, it does not look like progress is being made, I have a little chat with the Scout. It is the Scouts decision to work the badges and I will not force or push the Scout to complete the badges at camp. I do “Highly encourage” them to get them finished, but at the end of the week.. it will be up to him.
When we get home, I turn over all of the blue cards to the Troop Secretary and she records and goes through the same process as stated above.
So there it is.. The Dance of the Blue Card… I sure hope that helps.
Leave your questions, comments, and suggestions here on the blog or feel free to drop me an email.Have a Great Scouting Day!

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One thought on “The Dance of the Blue Card”

Hi, Jerry,
This has always frustrated me. It seems that no troop in our district follows the merit badge process described by the BSA. In our troop, the adults want to hold merit badge classes for eagle required badges, and I, as scoutmaster, resist. I show the scouts to go outside the troop meeting, contact the counselor, and work the badge, but few ever do. Most merit badges are done at summer camp or at district merit badge fairs (which I do not like, as I think such large merit badge classes defeat the purpose of the merit badge program). In our district, troops have to find MB counselors, since the district does not have a good list to draw from. We have to call the district advancement chairman, who will open a notebook and give us a name or two, and I find that these people no longer have anything to do with scouting. So, I have to look for someone to sign up to council the badge from people I know, My scouts just go to the merit badge fairs and bring me back a computer generated blue card for us to use to fill out the district advancement report so the scout can get the badge. I am surprised that the BSA does not control how the districts and councils do this stuff.

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